This invention relates in general to baseball caps, and in particular to caps designed to also catch baseballs.
Visored sporting caps commonly worn by baseball fans, hereafter generally referred to as "baseball caps" are quite common. Such caps have a visor which shields glaring lights or sunlight from a wearer's eyes. The cap of this invention may be worn wherever baseball caps in general are used but is particularly useful for catching foul balls and home runs while watching baseball games.
Many people attend baseball games with the hope of catching a baseball as a souvenir. To do so, some spectators bring their own baseball gloves. However, it is rare to have a ball hit in one's direction close enough to catch, so carrying a glove is essentially a burden. It must be held or placed on a person's lap, and there is always a risk that it may be lost or taken.
The idea of using a hat or a sporting cap for catching a baseball is not new. Additionally, some prior hats have glove-like attachments secured to the top or crown portion of the hat. These glove-like adaptations allowed a user to insert his or her hand into the glove-like section to catch a ball. Some include pockets for the insertion of padding to help cushion the impact when the ball is caught. However these hats have certain disadvantages, such as an appearance different from the standard sporting cap, appearances that are strange and undesirable. Additionally, it is not always easy to insert a person's hand into a glove section and it forces the person to momentarily take his or her eyes off the flight of the ball. Also, there was insufficient cushioning for the ball's impact. For these and other reasons, these types of ball-catching hats have not become popular.
The cap of this invention has features to allow it to be used to catch a baseball, or other ball, but these features do not detract from its appearance or normal use as a baseball style cap. Since the cap has a normal appearance, it can be un-embarrassingly be worn throughout a game and is therefore less likely to be lost.
Other advantages and attributes of this invention will be readily discernible upon a reading of the text hereinafter.